May 8, 2001

Originally known as "the 13-year old singing sensation from Wales," she is now a 15-year old singing sensation from Wales.

She tends to pop up on public television stations during fundraising drives. During one such fundraising drive, Seattle's PBS station showed selections from Charlotte Church in Jerusalem, a concert taped near the the Temple Mount. Between excerpts of Church singing "Ave Maria" and exclaiming over the rich history of the city, station employees hectored viewers for money. The threat of losing such programming was apparently intended as a spur to reluctant contributors, as was the "premium of the Charlotte Church video at the eighty dollar level."

Perhaps Charlotte Church is an angel come to inspire the world with songs of love and peace. There is something unsettling about the sight of a girl so young occupying the world stage with such complete composure, and if she is not in fact an angel, perhaps she is a demon.

Leaving aside the angel/demon question, how does she rate as a singer in classical terms? Is it wrong to regard the whole Church phenomenon as kitschy? Maybe she really is a preternaturally gifted vocalist, and her music lost only on snobs who automatically look down on anything that gains wide-spread popularity.

Not wanting to be on the wrong side of this question, but knowing fuck-all about opera, we decided to seek expert advice.

Melyssa Rice, lyrico-spinto soprano, is an operatic singer whose experience includes opera roles, chorus leads and ensemble work in regional opera companies. A graduate of St. Olaf College, she is a faculty member at the Music Center of the Northwest, and has been giving voice lessons since 1992.

The Blue Hammer: Is Charlotte Church the greatest singer in the world?

Melyssa Rice: No. Definitely not. She doesn't have a phenomenal voice, she has an average good voice, at the top end of the amateur scale. On the things I look for as a vocal teacher, things like tone and accuracy, she is fine, but not a prodigy. I have a 14-year old student and a 15-year old student with comparable voices. My students could do credible imitations of her with only a little effort. Charlotte Church is basically a talented 15-year old with millions of dollars of production behind her.

She's not extraordinary, but she could be with the proper training and if she keeps working on it. What I find disturbing is that I don't hear a lot of improvement between her first album and her latest. So she's either not getting good training or her training is being neglected altogether. She definitely has potential. She could be incredible if she works at it, but I just don't hear that happening.

BH: What do you think is her appeal?

MR: We don't get to hear a lot of classical voices, and the Charlotte Church phenomenon is a return to a pure tone and all the other things that we love in classical singing. There's also the Anglophile angle. I don't think she would have the same appeal is she were from Iowa instead of Wales. People love opera, but they also love to hate opera because they see it as music for rich people. She makes it palatable by blending opera and pop.

BH: Have you caught any of her specials on PBS?

MR: No, but I can see why they would be popular. She is comparable to Andrea Bocelli, a charismatic and heavily packaged singer who strikes an emotional chord with audiences. And I can't dis it because it brings people to opera. People who wouldn't ordinarily listen to opera might pick up an Andrea Bocelli record, and then find themselves drawn to Placido Domingo, who is my favorite operatic tenor. Charlotte Church's second album has lots of opera arias, and I have to see this as basically a good thing because it is bringing people back to classical singing, to the beauty of the human voice.

BH: So what's up with that little tremble her jaw does when she sings vibrato?

MR: Whitney Houston does that too. It's a way of creating vibrato, which you should ideally be able to produce without moving your jaw. Very few professional singers have a jaw wobble, but some people claim that their jaws move by themselves, so it can be kind of a gray area. It's not necessarily indicative of terrible technique, but it's not indicative of good technique either.

Can I say something here?

BH: Please.

MR: As a feminist, I find it telling that Charlotte Church's is the kind of female voice that makes a huge splash. It's a girlish voice. She's the pinnacle of the virginal young girl. There's no comparison with, for example, Maria Callas who sang womanly roles, full grown characters who have complex emotions. Callas sang Lady Macbeth, she sang Tosca--these characters kill people! Jewel is another example of this: she sings this great, strong material on stage, in unplugged venues, but the only thing you hear on the radio is her sweet, breathy stuff. Mainstream audiences are rarely given a chance to hear powerful women singers. There are gutsy women singers like PJ Harvey and Ani DiFranco, but you'll never hear them on top 40 radio. But Limp Bizkit is everywhere.

BH: If you were to get into a knife fight with Charlotte Church, and your wrists were tied together like those two guys in the "Beat It" video, who would win?

MR: Me, Lysa, in a knife fight with Charlotte Church? Hmm. I have never contemplated anything like this before, but I have to say probabaly Charlotte Church. Behind that angelic exterior is a very aggressive personality. Lord knows how many other young singers she's already stabbed in the back (pardon the pun) to get where she is. At the same time, my eight years of teaching have not prepared me for combat at all. I would get creamed. I'm sure she would also try to upstage me if we were singing together.